Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent. It belongs to the family of synthetic chemicals called pyrethroids and functions as a neurotoxin, affecting neuron membranes by prolonging sodium channel activation. It is not known to rapidly harm most mammals or birds, but is dangerously toxic to cats and fish. In general, it has a low mammalian toxicity and is poorly absorbed by skin.
In medicine, permethrin is a first-line treatment for scabies; a 5% (w/w) cream is marketed by Johnson & Johnson under the name Lyclear. In nordic countries it is marketed under trade name Nix, often available over the counter.
Permethrin kills ticks on contact with treated clothing. A method of reducing deer tick populations in terms of rodent vectors involves utilizing biodegradable cardboard tubes stuffed with permethrin-treated cotton. Mice collect the cotton for lining their nests. Permethrin on the cotton instantly kills any immature ticks that are feeding on the mice. It is important to put the tubes where mice will find them, such as in dense, dark brush, or at the base of a log; mice are unlikely to gather cotton from an open lawn.
Permethrin is used in tropical areas to prevent mosquito-borne disease such as dengue fever and malaria. Mosquito nets used to cover beds may be treated with a solution of permethrin. This increases the effectiveness of the bed net by killing parasitic insects before they are able to find gaps or holes in the net. Military personnel training in malaria-endemic areas may be instructed to treat their uniforms with permethrin, as well. An application should last several washes.
Permethrin is also used in industrial and domestic settings to control pests such as ants and termites.
Permethrin is listed as a "restricted use" substance by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Due to high toxicity for aquatic life, permethrin and permethrin-contaminated water should be properly disposed of. Degradation is quick and should the chemical be disposed of far from any aquatic life, the negative effects would be minimized. In a non-industrial context, the contaminant may be placed in direct sunlight to induce photodegradation. Contaminated water exposed to direct sunlight will be cleared of the permethrin and any known pollutant subproducts after a few hours.
Excessive exposure to permethrin can cause nausea, headache, muscle weakness, excessive salivation, shortness of breath, and seizures. Worker exposure to the chemical can be monitored by measurement of the urinary metabolites, while severe overdosage may be confirmed by measurement of permethrin in serum or blood plasma.
Permethrin does not present any notable genotoxicity or immunotoxicity in humans and farm animals, but is classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a likely human carcinogen, based on reproducible studies in which mice fed permethrin developed liver and lung tumors. Carcinogenic action in nasal mucosal cells due to inhalation exposure is suspected, due to observed genotoxicity in human tissue samples, and in rat livers the evidence of increased pre-neoplastic lesions raises concern over oral exposure.
Studies by Bloomquist et al., 2002 suggested a link of permethrin exposure to Parkinson's disease, including very small (per kg.) exposures: : 2002 study - "Our studies have documented low-dose effects of permethrin, doses below one-one thousandth of a lethal dose for a mouse, with effects on those brain pathways [that are] involved in Parkinson's Disease [...] We have found effects consistent with a pre-parkinsonsian condition, but not yet full-blown parkinsonism."
However a more recent 2007 study by the same researcher concluded that there was "little hazard to humans" : 2007 study - "long-term, low-dose exposure to permethrin alone did not cause signs of neurotoxicity to striatal dopaminergic neural terminals, or enhance the effects of MPTP. We conclude that, under typical use conditions, permethrin poses little Parkinsonian hazard to humans, including when impregnated into clothing for control of biting flies"
A 2006 study in South Africa, found residues of permethrin in breast milk, together with DDT, in an area that experienced DDT treatment for malaria control, as well as the use of pyrethroids in small-scale agriculture.
Category:Insecticides Category:Antiparasitic agents Category:Household chemicals Category:Organochlorides Category:Endocrine disruptors Category:Phenol ethers Category:Pyrethroids Category:Acaricides
cs:Permethrin de:Permethrin es:Permetrina fr:Perméthrine it:Permetrina nl:Permethrin pl:Permetryna pt:Permetrina ru:Перметрин fi:Permetriini zh:百滅寧This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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